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Paul Collingwood, England’s new assistant coach for the tour of West Indies and the World Twenty20, has said that he always needed Kevin Pietersen in his team and that any side would try anything to retain a player of his ability.Collingwood, who was handed his new role last week, played 300 times for England across all three formats – many of them alongside Pietersen – and was the captain of both the ODI and T20 sides. He led England to their one piece of global silverware, the 2010 World T20 in West Indies, where Pietersen was named Player of the Tournament.Collingwood’s international career ended when he was dropped following the 2011 World Cup – having earlier retired from Test cricket after the 2010-11 Ashes – which means he has not been involved in the side during the most recent of Pietersen’s controversies; the 2012 text messages involving the South Africans and now his sacking.However, Collingwood was a central figure in the side during the previous Pietersen-inspired crisis for English cricket – when he ousted Peter Moores as coach in late 2008 and was stripped of the captaincy – but never felt Pietersen had become unmanageable.”You will always try to find a way of keeping KP in the side,” he told the after a spell coaching Scotland as they qualified for 2015 World Cup. “But the last three years it just seems that the relationships have become so unmanageable between both sides that it hasn’t been able to work any more. You just can’t function.”I don’t know if this has been happening, but if you orientate too much around one player, and not the whole team, then it becomes an issue. From the outside you can see that there have been occasions over the last few years where he has obviously upset the apple cart.”But I always felt that I was needing KP in the side, and he’d never, at that point when I left the England team, he’d never become unmanageable as what it looks like he has now.”The end of Pietersen’s career comes despite Ashley Giles, the limited-overs coach, calling him a “million-pound asset” and reports that Stuart Broad, the Twenty20 captain, wanted him in the side.On the field, Pietersen and Collingwood had a strong relationship when they batted together: they averaged 60.04 as a pair with nine century stands including their 310 against Australia, in Adelaide, in 2006-07.”I’ve played with KP for pretty much six years, five and a half years, and he won a lot for England,” Collingwood said. “I probably wouldn’t be sitting here as a World Cup winner if it wasn’t for KP.”Collingwood is entering an England coaching set-up in a state of flux following the departure of Andy Flower and a new head coach is unlikely to be named until after the World T20. Ashley Giles, the limited-overs coach, remains the favourite to take charge and Collingwood gave his former team-mate wholehearted backing as they begin their new partnership.One of the reasons Flower gave for relinquishing his position was that he felt England needed one head coach across all formats – rather than the split roles introduced last year – which is something Collingwood supports.”Ashley is obviously early on in his international coaching career, but I think he’d be very good if he gets the three formats and I think that’s quite important now that the next coach does take the three formats over and really puts his stamp on the England team culture, the ethics and all that kind of stuff”I think Ashley’s done a good job with the players that he’s had in the one-day and the T20 form of the game. A lot of the time he does lose some of his best players because you’ve got to balance out the fatigue factor for Test cricket. So I think he’s definitely the next man in line for the job.”

Fast bowler Kyle Abbott has been added to South Africa’s Twenty20 squad as cover for Dale Steyn, who will miss at least the first two matches against Australia because of a hamstring strain. Steyn suffered the injury during the third Test at Newlands and bowled only 13.1 overs in the match, which South Africa lost to concede the series 1-2.”A Grade 1 hamstring strain would usually take between 7-10 days to recover, so Dale is unlikely to be available for the first two matches in Port Elizabeth and Durban,” South Africa’s manager Mohammed Moosajee said. “At this stage we are hopeful that he will be available for the ICC World Twenty20 and will work towards having him ready for the final T20 against Australia in Centurion.”Fast bowlers Wayne Parnell and Beuran Hendricks will undergo fitness tests on March 8 to determine their availability for the first T20 the next day. Parnell sustained a strain to his right groin during the second Test against Australia, while Hendricks is recovering from a side strain sustained during a Sunfoil series match.South Africa play the first Twenty20 against Australia on March 9, and their World Twenty20 campaign begins on March 22.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is likely to back the ICC revamp at the world governing body’s board meeting next month to give it leverage with other countries, especially India. The PCB is aware, ESPNcricinfo understands, that a pragmatic approach will give it the benefits of bilateral tours it needs in its current situation, while not signing it will increase the sense of isolation.The PCB is the only Full Member to have not extended its support as yet to the governance, finance and FTP changes in the ICC, which were proposed by the BCCI, the ECB and Cricket Australia in February. When the changes, which increase the power of those three boards within the ICC, were first proposed, four Full Members had come out against them: the PCB, the Bangladesh Cricket Board, Cricket South Africa (CSA) and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). The proposals have since been revised and were approved by eight of the Full Members on February 8. SLC and the PCB were the only two to vote against it at that meeting, and SLC extended its support to the revamp 10 days later.The PCB’s previous chairman Zaka Ashraf believed the revamp was against the principle of “equality”, and so the PCB, under, Ashraf objected to it. Current chairman Najam Sethi, though, who has been exchanging the reins of the PCB with Ashraf frequently over the past few months due tolegal and political reasons, said it was important to “safeguard” Pakistan’s interests.”I don’t think this is about principles, it is about safeguarding our own self-interests in the long run in world cricket,” Sethi said. “We are the only ones now, left alone [against the revamp]. Whomever I have spoken to says they also initially opposed the changes but later went with it because they were gaining a lot by supporting these changes.”Sethi reportedly met with his Bangladesh and Sri Lanka counterparts, on the sidelines of Asia Cup, in Dhaka.The PCB is keen on negotiating bilateral series with India. “The fact is every country wants to play India because they say it brings them much needed revenues. It is a fact that not playing cricket with India is damaging for us,” Sethi said.Ashraf, however, maintained that the revamp would be unjust to the other members. According to him, the PCB – given Pakistan’s commercial value to world cricket – was offered the chance to side with the ‘Big Three’ and benefit from the original proposals.”The situation is very tricky,” Ashraf told ESPNcricinfo. “The PCB obviously will be the last country [to accept the revamp], but that doesn’t make any difference. The restructuring is still against the basic principle of equality and the ‘Big Three’ will be acting despotically.”The [revised] financial model is based on merely theory and a dummy model [by which no Full Member loses] is shown with a verbal assurance that they won’t let the things slip. They promised that every board would get its fair share according to their commercial value. They also asked us to be the part of the scheme, to make it Big Four, as Pakistan holds a productive commercial value.””The revamped ICC model is bound to fail in the long run,” Ashraf said. “Their bid is to control things and that is what the whole idea was, but there is no indemnity if the structure collapses. And I am afraid the way cricket is being treated, the structure won’t sustain itself in the long run and in the next three years board members, especially the supporters, will start realising this and things will start splitting.”Pakistan have not hosted any Full Member at home since the terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore five years ago. Despite that, the PCB has been functioning rather well and that shows “the value” of Pakistan cricket, Ashraf said. “Pakistan, in last few years, despite being isolated are still standing tall and the PCB is not in debt as many boards are. No board is ready to help Pakistan at a crucial time to revive cricket in Pakistan. But Pakistan cricket is still going strong.”The world knows the value of Pakistan cricket and this is what keeps us going. Despite the isolation, cricket in Pakistan still a profitable product.”Currently, Sethi is discussing the matter of the revamp with previous chairmen of the board, including Ashraf, seeking their advice on what he has termed a “crisis”. It is understood that all of these former chiefs have suggested Pakistan remain in opposition to the revamp.

Graeme Smith is settling into life as a former South African captain, leaving behind an international game that he says needs “leadership and direction” if it is to navigate its way through the current melee of political and governance issues.Smith’s final months as South Africa’s leader – a role he held for an astonishing 11 years – came with the country being marginalised on the world stage, firstly through the controversy of the abridged India tour and then by the formulation of the Big Three around the ICC boardroom table which left South Africa on the outside, nervously looking in, wondering what their status as the No. 1 Test team will afford them.”The game is facing a few challenges at the moment, whether they are good or bad I don’t know,” Smith told ESPNcricinfo in an interview with Mark Butcher. “Only time will tell. Leadership is crucial. The ICC need to show that and take the game forward, give it direction. There is a huge interest in all formats.”Smith has not opted to bolster his pension with a dash around the world playing Twenty20, instead committing to the intense county cricket schedule with Surrey. He acknowledged, however, that the financial rewards being offered by Twenty20 leagues around the world can often be hard to ignore. Reflecting on his time leading South Africa, Smith said one of his key principles was putting money to one side.”You need to have something that people want to be a part of for more than just money. That’s what we really worked in on South Africa, our cultural identity, what made us want to play for South Africa instead of chasing money around the world because that is a really factor in world cricket now. The game needs good direction especially from administration.”Whether Smith will ever have the desire to work in a cricket boardroom remains to be seen, but for now his playing days are not over as he embarks in the final two years of his Surrey deal after an injury-aborted start in 2013 when he required ankle surgery which sowed the first seeds of international retirement.”I think things slowly progressed last year. I had big ankle surgery, Gary [Kirsten] walked away from the job, a new coaching structure came in, Jacques [Kallis] retired, stuff started playing on mind. It was about having the courage to make that last decision. I’d been captain for 11-12 years which has certainly taken its toll. How I react to retirement, I don’t know. It’s hard to predict.”And he knows the Surrey job will not be an easy ride before finally hanging up his bat for good. “There are a lot of really young guys who need to grow and hopefully I can play a role in all of that,” he said. “We probably lack a little of the middle-of-the-road cricketers, those in the middle of their careers, so have a bit of work to do.”The club is trying to stay a little under the radar and let our performances determine where we go. It’s a club with a huge stature and we want to get our cricket up to that level.”

Umar Gul, the Pakistan fast bowler, has expressed interest in filling the vacant post of national Twenty20 captain, though he insisted he first wants to return to top form. The PCB has been looking for a Twenty20 captain since the World T20, after which Mohammad Hafeez stepped down.Gul, 30, is a vastly experienced T20 player but had a difficult 2013 when he was sidelined by injury for nine months, before returning in December. Doubts over his fitness resurfaced when he withdrew from the three-match Test series against Sri Lanka in January. However, he continues to make the limited-overs squads and is currently the world’s second highest T20 wicket-taker and one of the most senior players in the Pakistan squad.”I also wish to be a captain so that when I retire I will be remembered as former captain,” Gul told reporters at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. “But it depends on PCB what they think. I want to return to performing like I used to in the past, and if so then why not (consider the captaincy). But I have no issue playing under any captain, either the senior or junior, and recently I have fully supported Hafeez as well.”Gul sustained a knee injury in March 2013 during the second ODI against South Africa in Centurion, and has missed five series since, including the Champions Trophy. Following the injury, he travelled to Australia for surgery and after six weeks of rest, began his rehabilitation.”It’s very difficult to come back after injury in international cricket but still I am lucky enough to survive. Though things were a bit up and down I am feeling much better in this summer camp. I am trying to do hard training more than others so that I could be as much fit as I was before operation.”He took nearly a year to regain full fitness, and has re-established himself in the limited-overs sides, though his Test career remains in the balance.”I haven’t yet decided whether I am fully fit for Test matches but this summer camp will obviously give me a great opportunity to fine-tune myself in the time without international cricket. I can’t say whether I will be fit again (for Test cricket) but I will see later (after the camp) whether I am fit for Test matches or not.”T20 is easier than Test and ODI, in one hour 20 minutes you have to bowl a four-over spell, every player is preferring to play and you don’t need that much fitness for it. But for the sake of fitness and for the ongoing training camp I had turned down an offer from Somerset so that I could prepare hard for the upcoming international cricket.”After the World T20 in Bangladesh ended in early April, Pakistan have no international cricket till August. The PCB decided to hold a month-long summer camp to ensure the players stay fit during the international break. Gul is among 40 players who are undergoing extensive training at Lahore under the supervision of bowling coach Mohammad Akram.While Pakistan’s players are training at home most of the top players around the world are in India featuring in the Indian Premier League. Gul, who was part of the first season of the IPL, rued the missed opportunity. “We miss IPL because we are deprived of sharing a dressing room with the best players in the world,” said Gul. “Being a professional you learn a lot by sharing a bench with players like Hussey and many more. In fact, even our junior players should go out and play such leagues whether it is county cricket, Big Bash or IPL. It will make you more professional.”

Kevon Cooper, the Rajasthan Royals allrounder, has been reported by the umpires for a suspect action while bowling certain deliveries, after his team’s five-wicket loss to Mumbai Indians. It is the second time that Cooper’s action has come under the scanner; in 2011, his action was reported during the Caribbean T20 league after which he had to take remedial measures at the University of Western Australia, Perth.Under the IPL Suspected Illegal Bowling Action policy, Cooper may request an official assessment from the BCCI Suspect Bowling Action Committee, which comprises S Venkataraghavan, Javagal Srinath, AV Jayaprakash and Sanjay Patel, the BCCI secretary.However, pending any clearance by the committee, Cooper would be available to bowl for Royals in IPL 2015. Should he be reported a second time, he would be suspended from bowling for the remainder of that season.Cooper, who joined Royals in 2012, has picked up 39 wickets in 31 appearances over three IPL seasons. He picked up the wickets of Michael Hussey and Kieron Pollard at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, but Royals were edged out of the race for playoffs as Mumbai Indians chased down the 190-run target in 14.4 overs.

ScorecardSamit Patel lifted Nottinghamshire to a score that proved defendable•Getty Images

Nottinghamshire overcame a stuttering display with the bat to put themselves on the brink of the NatWest T20 Blast quarter finals with a 31-run victory over Leicestershire at Trent Bridge.After posting only 121 for 9, after electing to bat first, the home side bounced back ruthlessly to bowl Leicestershire out for just 90 in 18.3 overs.The home side struggled to find any momentum in their innings and were indebted to Samit Patel’s 44 to set any sort of total but it proved to be more than competitive as the Leicestershire reply got off to a dreadful start.Requiring just over a run a ball, the visitors lost five wickets in the opening Powerplay before eventually succumbing for their lowest-ever total in the competition. The manner of the defeat was particularly hard on the Leicestershire attack, with both Josh Cobb and Atif Sheikh returning outstanding figures.Cobb, the Leicestershire skipper, finished with 3 for 18 after Sheikh had denied Nottinghamshire their usual fast start, bowling his four overs straight off, to claim 2 for 11.Sheikh, 23, born in Nottingham and a former player with the Trent Bridge junior sides, returned to the city to knock back the stumps of both Michael Lumb and Alex Hales with his brisk left-arm.Charlie Shreck, a seasoned veteran with even stronger Nottinghamshire connections, relished the opportunity of playing against one of his former sides and also picked up a wicket in the early stages, removing Riki Wessels leg before wicket.Notts lost wickets at regular intervals and also went 11 overs without finding the boundary ropes, a sequence eventually broken by Patel, who hoisted Jigar Naik straight down the ground for the only six of the innings.Patel was eventually run out in the mad scramble for late runs but the innings ended in a real whimper as Cobb accounted for both Ajmal Shahzad and Luke Fletcher with the final two deliveries.Nottinghamshire’s response was clinical. Fletcher bowled a double-wicket maiden, accounting for both Cobb and Greg Smith. The latter had scored a century when the sides met at Grace Road last month and his dismissal inspired the hosts.A stunning boundary catch by James Franklin, looking into the sun as he ran round and accounted for Niall O’Brien was followed up by more individual brilliance as Steven Mullaney ran out Ned Eckersley with a direct hit.When Shahzad removed the dangerous Scott Styris, the board read 24 for 5 and although Tom Wells and Matt Boyce added 21 together they fell, along with Naik, in a disastrous seven ball spell.Some late resistance saw Shreck swing Gurney over the deep mid-wicket fence and Sheikh demonstrated that he has something to offer with the bat as well, twice hitting Mullaney for six. Sheikh was last out, heaving across the line to Fletcher, who impressed with 3 for 11.”I’ll always back myself to bowl a Yorker and if I can put it up there then they shouldn’t be able to hit me away for runs,” Fletcher said. “In my first over I just tried to put it good areas and they both nicked off. Getting Smith early was so crucial.”It’s going for me at the moment and long may it continue. We’re just taking it game by game but we’re confident as a bowling unit that we’ll always get the job done.”The victory takes Notts back to second position in the North Group, needing just one more point from either of their two final games, away at Northamptonshire and Yorkshire, to guarantee a place in the knock-out stages.Leicestershire remain eighth, with only pride to play for as they travel to Edgbaston to face Warwickshire next Friday.

ScorecardSurrey were unable to break Hampshire down, despite having the measure of their opponents•PA Photos

Transition. Corporate speak for “not as good as we should be”. The word is enough to make any sports fan glum.Surrey fans have heard it a lot in the past decade. When Chris Adams was appointed coach, he declared that it was “Year Zero”. Five years on and Surrey supporters might feel like little had changed.Despite financial resources unrivaled not just in Division Two but in the whole county game, allowing them to go further than others in developing separate sides for Championship and Twenty20 cricket, Surrey are very likely to spend next season in Division Two, for the fifth time in seven years. It should be the cause of huge embarrassment.For all that, however, optimism is pervading The Oval. And it feels like more than just glib talk.Hampshire are a fine Championship side. They arrived at The Oval top of Division Two, with the depth of batting and bowling talent to suggest that, should they return to the top tier, it need not be fleeting.Yet Surrey had their measure. True, they did not come close to winning: the weather, costing over a day’s play; the pitch, turgid and slow; and the resilience of Hampshire’s batsmen, including Sean Ervine on the final day, amounted to formidable obstacles.But this was another performance to add to the sense that Surrey may have relocated their strut. A dire Championship start – two losses and two draws from their first four game – has given way to a heartening run: four draws and three victories from their last seven matches, which has been allied to vibrant Twenty20 form.Most pleasing for Surrey is the prominence of players nurtured through the club’s youth system. Their penchant for ageing but expensive recruits has at times resembled that of pop-up T20 franchises. Yet much of county cricket’s relevance lies in identifying and nurturing local talent.That may sound quaint, but the reliance on signing players from other counties has lent the club a slightly hollow feel in recent years. It has felt increasingly detached from the area it is meant to represent. A particular nadir was reached in a thrashing in a 40-over game at Chelmsford last year. Surrey used six players aged 37 or above, none of whom were homegrown.This year feels different. Surrey’s leading wicket-taker, Matt Dunn, is a product of their youth set-up, as are Tom Curran, Jade Dernbach and Stuart Meaker. The same is true of their three highest-scoring batsmen – Zafar Ansari, Rory Burns and Jason Roy.Roy enjoyed a spectacular few days against Hampshire, following up a 25-ball 63 in the T20 game on Friday night with a run-a-ball 114 in the Championship: it seemed positively restrained by comparison.”I stand up every week and say it’s the best I’ve seen him play. I’ve been saying to everyone listening that England need to be keeping an eye on him,” Surrey’s captain Gary Wilson said. “We’ve seem glimpses of it in the past but now he’s doing it almost every time he comes out to bat.”There is evidently a togetherness about this Surrey side, who Wilson described as “a real pleasure to captain”.”It’s a feather in the cap of the people who’ve brought them through. We’ve got a great youth set-up here and great academy director in Gareth Townsend. It’s great credit to the club and what they’ve done over the last ten years.”But no amount of youthful – or even more middle-aged – vigour could inject life into the pitch. Forty-one overs of skill, meriting more than three wickets, led to Gareth Batty becoming increasingly frustrated by the docile pitch, a feeling that would hardly have been tempered seeing Tillakaratne Dilshan and Vikram Solanki share four lower-order wickets with their offspin. Wilson said “Batty’s going to about two foot shorter at the end of the season”.Ervine also professed himself mystified by the surface, especially given Surrey’s need to win to close the gap on Hampshire and Worcestershire. “They weren’t too happy with the wicket,” Ervine said. “I was very surprised at how flat it was and they were as well, especially with how little it turned.”The upshot is that promotion may prove beyond Surrey this season. But as seasons of transition go, this could be among the more heartening.

India’s national selection panel will give a first indication of its World Cup plans on Tuesday when the selectors sit down to pick the squad for the limited-overs leg of the England tour. The selection committee, chaired by Sandeep Patil, will pick the squad for five ODIs, and a one-off Twenty20, starting August 25.It will be interesting to see if the selectors reward fringe ODI specialists who were tried out at the higher level over the last couple of months. Barring a few regulars like Suresh Raina and Ajinkya Rahane, the squad to Bangladesh for three ODIs comprised mostly the domestic and IPL performers. And the same lot was given an extended run during India A’s recent tour of Australia, which culminated with a triumphant campaign in the quadrangular one-day competition.The selectors have closely followed the progress of the A team in Australia: while Rajinder Singh Hans watched the two four-day games from the sidelines, he was replaced by Vikram Rathour for the quadrangular series.The selectors will have to decide if Raina, Robin Uthappa and Cheteshwar Pujara – none of whom had a memorable outing in Bangladesh – deserve to remain in contention for the World Cup. Uthappa, the star of the IPL, was one of only two India players to have scored a fifty in Bangladesh. Even though he shone with his captaincy skills during the Emerging Players Tournament in Australia, Uthappa had a mediocre outing with the bat. He scored 134 runs from seven innings during the tournament.It also remains to be seen if the selectors reward fringe performers, and rest a key bowler like Bhuvneshwar Kumar whose fitness is being stretched during the five-Test series in England. Umesh Yadav, one of the stars of the first-class matches on the A tour, is likely to earn his place back in the squad.Sanju Samson impressed with his sound technique and temperament during the A tour, including the team management. But he will have to compete with the in-form Naman Ojha if the selectors decide to include a wicketkeeper-batsman as back up for MS Dhoni.The spin duo of Akshar Patel and Parvez Rasool has been consistent both in Bangladesh and Australia. But their chances depend on the balance of the squad, which will be finalised after discussing it with Dhoni and coach Duncan Fletcher. Both Dhoni and Fletcher are likely to join the meeting from Manchester via video conferencing.The balance of the squad would also determine the fate of Manoj Tiwary, the perennial nearly man of Indian team. Tiwary had a decent run in Australia and has also showed his prowess with the ball, picking a five-for in one-dayers.One player who is certain to retain his place in the side is allrounder Stuart Binny. The Karnataka allrounder registered the best figures by an Indian in the second ODI in Bangladesh, which was followed by a Test debut in England.

Zaheer Khan has said that he is unlikely to be fit for the upcoming Champions League Twenty20 in September.Zaheer told ESPNcricinfo he had only recently started bowling and while his progress has been slow, he is “going in the right direction”. Zaheer had sustained a tendon injury in his bowling arm while playing for Mumbai Indians against Kings XI Punjab in the IPL on May 3 at the Wankhede stadium.Before sustaining the injury, Zaheer had played in South Africa and New Zealand, taking 16 wickets in four Tests at an average of 44. He bowled 195.3 overs. While he did not appear to be the same force as before, Zaheer said he was “very happy” with his comeback.Zaheer Khan: “I don’t really think about the future and what is going to happen and I don’t stress about what has already happened.”•Getty Images

“It is about how you are impacting the game. I was never an out and out fast bowler,” Zaheer said. “I was always dependent on my skill set, how I set up a batsman and how I am making that impact in a spell. If you look at these four games, I did have spells where I got wickets in bulk. I was able to break partnerships, which is the key.”If the opponents are having a good run, someone needs to put their hand up and break it. I was always there in that scenario and those are the checkpoints for me. I was very happy that I was able to keep up with the workload.”Zaheer has played 92 Tests and 200 ODIs over a 14-year career, but at the age of 35, he is running out of time to make another return to the team and add to that tally. “I like to stay in the present. Control the controllable, it’s the best you can do,” he said. “I don’t really think about the future and what is going to happen and I don’t stress about what has already happened.”I have to just go with how my body is responding and the important thing is for me to play again, I have to bowl at my best. First I have to satisfy myself that I am there and that I can deliver. If I am able to live up to the stress and pressures of international cricket, I’ll just take a call at that time.”Zaheer has been exploring business ventures during his forced break but kept a close eye on how India’s seam-bowling unit performed in England. He believes the “pressure of playing such a long series” took its toll on the bowlers and losing Ishant Sharma to injury after he bowled India to victory at Lord’s was a big setback.”If someone is bowling well in a long series and is able to create a big impact, that’s what we were missing. There are things you learn with experience. The whole bowling unit is very young. At this level it is important that you get into a good routine and manage yourself well.”Zaheer said India would not improve their record overseas unless the batsmen started making bigger contributions. “I have always felt that if you score 350 runs in the first innings then you are always in the game. If you don’t achieve that then you are always catching up with the game,” he said. “The success we had overseas in the past, the key was that we put the runs on the board. Then we won that battle, and then you went and got those wickets as well.”After the home season, during which India will play five ODIs and three Tests against West Indies, another trial by fire awaits them in Australia. Zaheer said understanding the difference between the behaviour of the Duke ball in England and the Kookaburra in Australia would be crucial to India’s performance.”With the Duke ball, you can get away with not using the new ball well, as it can start swinging after 10 or 15 overs, as opposed to the Kookaburra ball which goes dead in the same time,” he said. “In a Test match, it’s always about knowing when to attack and when to hold on and wait for the right moment to come on.”Zaheer believed the issue of the appointment of a new support staff and speculation over the future of head coach Duncan Fletcher had been blown out of proportion. “You can have all kind of support staff, they are there to help you, to guide you, but at the end of the day the responsibility is of the individual to make sure that they contribute.”